NORFOLK

To get premium seats at the reconstructed Foreman Field, Old Dominion football fans will need to pay annual seat memberships ranging from $50 to $300 per ticket, the school announced Tuesday.

The prices of the tickets themselves are increasing just $1, the school said. The membership payments are necessary because of a change in the law in 2017 that makes donations that were once required to secure prime tickets no longer tax-deductible.

“We are responding to the legislation,” Drew Turner, an associate athletic director for development said in a news release.

Previously, the number of tickets a fan could purchase was linked to the amount of donations made. Because payments for the right to buy tickets are no longer tax-deductible, ODU must separate them from donations that remain deductible, Turner said.

“If we did not separate payments made for the rights to purchase tickets from other gifts, it would make all donations non-deductible,” Turner said. “And the only way we can operate is by requiring a seat membership for the ticket.”

ODU is undertaking a $65 million renovation and expansion of its 82-year old stadium. It will begin after the season finale against VMI on Nov. 17 and is scheduled to be completed in time for the Aug. 30, 2019, season opener against Norfolk State.

The right to choose seats in the stadium next June will be based on a priority points system in which donors are ranked based on how long they have had season tickets, how much money they’ve donated and whether they have tickets to other ODU teams.

Such “re-seating” or re-allocation of tickets is typically done every couple of years. With the advent of seat payments, however, the next re-seating in June will be the last done by ODU.

Basically, fans can claim seats for life, as long as they pay the annual seat payment, even if they do not make additional donations.

Many no doubt will continue to give, however. Donations separate from the seat payments determine eligibility for other perks, such as tailgate parking spots and access to VIP areas.

Such donations also go to support scholarships and other athletic department needs.

“Our donors are contributing to a philanthropic cause,” said Jena Virga, executive director of the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation. “It’s not about just getting a ticket to a game.”

ODU did not specify how many seats will require the payments. The school sold about 12,000 season tickets this season.

The renovated stadium will have about 15,000 sideline seats in all. Some season tickets will continue to be available for $200, with no seat license or donation to the Old Dominion Athletic Fund required. Maintaining that level of affordability was "important to our administration," Turner said.

Unlike now, all seats will have back support, with about a third having chair-backs. Seats will also be closer to the field, with increased leg room and improved sight lines.

New concession stands and restrooms will be added on ground-level concourses under the new grandstands. There also will be new east and west gates intended to improve traffic flow and a new press box. Plans called for more than 21,000 seats, a slight increase over the current capacity of 20,118.

Improving the game-day experience for fans is a priority in the reconstruction, and the project addressed many concerns expressed in a 2016 survey, school officials have said.

It’s unclear how adding seat licenses could affect ODU’s bottom line, as fans facing the additional cost of seat licenses could possibly reconsider whether, or how much, to donate. Or how many tickets to purchase.

Turner said it’s possible some larger donors who have traditionally bought many premium seats could scale back, opening up as many as 2,000 prime seats to smaller donors previously squeezed out.

"Each situation will be unique," he said.

He said ODAF has been studying the tax bill for months, and that he's spoken to colleagues across the nation about the potential implications on charitable giving.

"It kind of worked out that we could implement these changes as we moved into the new stadium," he said.

Though the stadium renovation has been planned for years and is bound to generate excitement, the roll-out of the new seat payments comes at a possibly challenging time, with the team struggling through a second straight losing campaign.

ODU’s 60-game sellout streak ended when the home opener against FIU drew just 19,243, about 900 below capacity of 20,118. ODU announced a record, overflow crowd of 20,532 for Virginia Tech and was sold out for Marshall, but drew a homecoming crowd of 19,725 last Saturday vs. Middle Tennessee.

Weariness with the lack of amenities at Foreman Field possibly played a part. A reconstructed stadium will eliminate that problem. An improved product on the field would no doubt encourage fans to reach into their wallets as well.

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